


With these bells

by Asukan



Series: Kakashi/Naruto Summer [8]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Feelings Realization, Fluff, Hatake Kakashi-centric, Hokage Hatake Kakashi, Idiots in Love, Jealous Hatake Kakashi, Love Confessions, M/M, Minor Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining Hatake Kakashi, Post - Will of Fire, Post-The Last: Naruto the Movie, Post-War, Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi, knksummer, knksummer2020, knksummerfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26353498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asukan/pseuds/Asukan
Summary: Naruto learns that curiosity kills the cat. Or well, that rummaging through other people's things might reveal secrets that you were never meant to learn about.Kakashi learns that wearing your heart on your sleeve is a good thing. At least when dealing with Naruto.In which a little box is important. A jewellery box rarely holds bells, no matter how precious a memento the bells are.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Kakashi/Naruto Summer [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850467
Comments: 44
Kudos: 309
Collections: KAKANARU SUMMER EVENTS





	With these bells

**Author's Note:**

  * For [graceimagining](https://archiveofourown.org/users/graceimagining/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Mieru](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13983771) by [uzumaki_rakku (fuurin_senpai)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuurin_senpai/pseuds/uzumaki_rakku). 



> Mieru is one of the first stories I read after returning to the Naruto fandom and uzumakki_rakku is, therefore, the person that made me consider Kakashi and Naruto together in the first place. So, in that regard, all the stories so far are inspired by Mieru and uzumakki_rakku. But I decided to give a more direct credit here due to the conversation between Kakashi and Naruto in Mieru which, in a way, happens here as well. A version of it, at least.
> 
> This is the eighth story for the summer event, with the prompt Will of Fire AU. 
> 
> Gifted to Grace for helping me figure out the story (more on this in the End Notes).

“Hey, sensei, I still can't find the-” 

Naruto's loud, but muffled, voice cut off into nothing and Kakashi glanced up from his book in the direction of his personal study. When he heard nothing from his place on the sofa he got up with a pat to Bull’s head as an apology for his pillow wandering off and started walking down the long hallway.

As he entered his study he saw Naruto stand shock-still in front of the heavy desk that Tenzō had made for him after Kakashi had moved into the Hokage mansion. The top drawer was opened and Naruto’s bandaged right hand was still holding the handle. 

Kakashi frowned at the sight. His former student being that still and quiet always felt jarring. Last time he'd seen it was during the war and he'd promised himself to never let Naruto stay like that for long. “Naruto?”

The younger man jumped at his voice and turned around. “Sensei! Sorry, I was looking for-”

“My plans for the academy reform that Iruka-sensei wanted to take a look at, I know,” Kakashi replied and walked up to Naruto’s side. “But you found something else, didn't you?”

Naruto said nothing so Kakashi looked into the drawer as well. There at the front, probably moved forward as Naruto pulled the drawer open with more force than needed since he wasn't used to his prosthetic arm yet, lied a familiar ring.

"Ah, I see," Kakashi said and leaned in front of Naruto to pick it up.

Naruto glanced at him. "It's a wedding ring, isn't it?"

"Well, it's my mother's ring," he replied and held it up to the light. The gold was a bit dented by small teeth marks, but the inlaid diamond was as brilliant as ever. "I don't know if my parents exchanged rings at their wedding, but my mother would always wear this. Either on her hand or around her neck. She tended to prefer using it as a necklace. According to my father, at least."

He turned the ring around in his hand to make the diamond sparkle in the dim lighting. 

"According to-?" Naruto quieted and his eyes grew wide. "Oh."

Kakashi twirled the ring around on his fingers and nodded. "She died when I was very young. I wasn't in the Academy yet."

Naruto said nothing but shuffled closer until their arms brushed against each other. Kakashi felt a smile tug on his lips and he didn't move away, accepting the gesture. 

"Do you remember her at all?" Naruto asked in a soft murmur, glancing up at Kakashi and looking uncertain. 

"Vague memories," Kakashi said, voice equally soft. There was a hush that'd fallen over the room, and he didn't want to break the spell. "I remember her singing in the kitchen, but I can't tell you what song it was. She held me as my father cooked because he was a much better chef. She loved poetry and reading. I remember sitting in her lap as she read to me. And I'd chew on the ring around her neck whenever I got the opportunity to."

Naruto snorted and looked at him with a sideways grin. "So that was why it had teeth marks on it."

He slid a finger over it and felt the marks. "Which is why she sometimes kept it in the box."

"The box?" Naruto asked. "I didn't see any box."

Kakashi glanced down at the drawer and nudged at Naruto's hand to make him close it. "You wouldn't have. It's the one the bells were in."

Naruto huffed and moved closer, the heat a welcome shield against the slight chill in the room. "The bells you gave me when you decided to be a self-sacrificing bastard and everyone was being stupid and Sakura-chan had to break me out of jail so I could kick people's asses and shout at Gaara to be able to drag you back?" Naruto asked, voice drier than the Suna desert. "Those bells?"

Kakashi nodded and did not laugh at how Naruto was still supremely unimpressed by his decision to give his life for the village a few years back. He didn't think the other man would appreciate it. "Yes, exactly."

Naruto looked down at the ring and stepped away. Kakashi stood still rather than chasing after the heat and felt foolish as he shivered at the sudden cold. 

"Do you want it back?" Naruto asked as Kakashi turned and leaned against his desk to keep looking at the younger man. Naruto didn't meet his eyes and stood with hunched shoulders, biting his lips.

Kakashi frowned, confused at the shift in Naruto's behaviour. "The bells?"

"No, the box," Naruto replied and still wouldn't look at him.

"Why would I want the box back?"

"In case you ever want to give someone the ring, sensei," Naruto said and rubbed his right arm. "Isn't the ring usually in a box for that?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, usually. But there's no need to worry about that, Naruto." 

Naruto finally met his gaze at that, eyes looking darker than normal. "Why not?"

It was Kakashi's turn to look away. "Shinobi may deal in deception and there were many things I was forced to keep from you. But I've done my best to never outright lie to you."

Naruto moved closer. "Kakashi-sensei?"

"Don't ask me to start now, Naruto," he said with a wry smile. "Please."

"What if I asked you to tell me the truth then, sensei?"

Trust Naruto to go for the most straightforward option, even if it was the hardest one. But certain things should not be brought to light. They were best kept to dreams, even if the dreams haunted him.

Kakashi shook his head. Then jumped as Naruto's left hand wrapped around his wrist like a brand. He glanced up at that and it was a mistake. Like the moth to the flame, he was helpless to look away from those burning blue eyes.

Naruto smiled and squeezed his wrist gently. "Please?"

A kunai at his throat would have done nothing. Torture would never loosen his tongue. Naruto smiling at him, with eyes soft and fingers trembling against his pulse? Kakashi would give him anything within his power.

He took the hand around his wrist in a steady grip as his heart pounded in his ears. His thumb rubbed against the knuckle of Naruto’s ring finger, marvelling at the silky smooth skin granted by perfect healing. The hand didn’t pull away and a small, foolish part of him couldn’t help but hope.

“There is only one person I’d like to give it to,” he said and brought the tanned hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to the back of it. “And since I cannot, I will give it to no one.”

Naruto said nothing and the hand was slack in Kakashi’s grip. Blue eyes were blown wide and whiskered cheeks were bright red, but Naruto only looked at him. Kakashi had, once in a while on a rainy day, imagined how Naruto would react if he ever told him. He’d imagined loud blustering, an accusation of being a pervert and some screaming before a swift escape and then months of Naruto avoiding him. He had never expected this eerie calm.

“Naruto?” Kakashi murmured, and his masked lips brushing against skin made him realise he hadn’t pulled away yet. He did so with one last kiss and then let go of Naruto’s hand. As he stepped back, Naruto lurched forward and grasped his wrist again.

“You… I… You never-,” he said, voice hoarse. “I didn’t know.”

“I’d planned to keep it that way, you know,” Kakashi said, smiling at a Naruto lost for words. “You don’t need to do anything with it, Naruto. I don’t expect that.”  
  
“But, sensei, I don’t want… You’re important and I, I mean,” Naruto stopped with a frustrated groan. “I don’t know what to say.”  
  
“Naruto, you didn’t force me to love you,” Kakashi said, and felt his chest ache at the surprised look on Naruto’s face. “You don’t owe me anything and you’re in no way obligated to reciprocate my feelings. You're not a bad person for not feeling the same way.”

He tried to pull his arm back, but the grip around his wrist tightened and held firm. Naruto’s face settled into a thoughtful frown as blue eyes flickered across his face.

“Naruto, let go of me,” he said, tugging gently at his arm. "I told you the truth, as you asked of me. But I'd like to be alone now."

“Shh, sensei,” Naruto murmured, not letting him move away. “I’m thinking. And if you go now, you’ll be all distant and things and I’d have to chase you down.”

Kakashi raised a brow at that. “So I should just stand here and wait at your convenience?”  
  
Naruto blushed at that. “It’s not like that, sensei, I’m sorry. It’s just, I think I need you here to figure it out.”  
  
“I don’t even know what you’re trying to do, Naruto, but I’ll stay,” Kakashi said and tugged at his arm again. This time Naruto let him back away a few steps.“What’s there to figure out?” 

“What to do.”

“You’re seeing Hinata, aren’t you?” Kakashi said and wished that he wasn’t sure. That the entire village hadn’t been talking about it since the first date. “After that mission to the moon a few weeks back. There’s no need for you to stop that.”

And it hurt to say it, but he'd resigned himself to it once he first heard the rumours.

“I think there might be,” Naruto said and rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace. “I realised she loved me during the mission and I thought I might feel the same. There was this warmth in my chest and I thought it must be love. I didn’t really know. But, I mean, I realised something earlier.”  
  
“What?”

“That I might have done what you told me not to,” Naruto replied with a sigh. “Feeling obligated? She was the first one to ever tell me they loved me, y’know, during the Pain attack? And then there was this water on the moon. It was like a dream. It was strange, sensei. But I told her I love her-” and the words shouldn’t hurt because Kakashi had prepared himself for them for years now, much like how he’d been dreading a wedding invitation- “and now I think that it might have been, eh…”  
  
And that small, foolish part of him lit up once more as he saw how uncomfortable Naruto looked. “The heat of the moment?”

“Something like that, yeah,” Naruto said as he sat down on top of the desk behind him. “Or loving the idea of being loved. She’s a nice girl, she is. But we’ve gone out for food twice and have nothing to talk about. We have nothing in common and I feel awkward around her. Like I’m going to do something stupid. Shouldn’t I feel good around the person I love?”

Kakashi shifted where he stood and felt out of his depths. He was not prepared to give Naruto relationship advice. Not now, not ever. There were limits to his self-flagellating tendencies.

“Maybe it’s just nerves?” Kakashi asked because, apparently, he was a masochist. “She is a good woman and would make an excellent wife. Elegant and sweet. And beautiful, right?”

“I don’t think it’s just nerves,” Naruto said as he shook his head. “We’ve kissed and it was nice, but not like Sakura-chan always talked about from those romance novels she’d never admit to reading. That’s backwards, right? Feeling nervous and awkward when just hanging out.”

“That could just be that you don’t know each other well enough yet,” Kakashi said and dragged a hand through his hair. “Naruto, I’m sorry, but I’m not the right person to ask. Ignoring the obvious problem, I can’t help you with what to do after a sudden confession from someone you don’t really know. For me, it was a gradual thing. I can’t tell you anything about... Please don’t ask me to help you with this.”  
  
“You already have, sensei,” Naruto said and smiled at him. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to be cruel. It’s just, it helps to compare.”  
  
“Compare what?”  
  
“How I feel around her with how I feel around you.”

Kakashi froze. 

"Naruto, don't do this in some sort of misguided attempt to be kind," he said, and there was no way he could keep his voice calm. “Let it be.”

Blue eyes widened at that and Naruto flinched on his perch. “I’m doing this all wrong, aren’t I?”

He got down from Kakashi’s desk and walked closer to Kakashi, stopping just a few steps away. “I’m sorry, sensei, I'm not very good at this. It’s just, you’re one of my most precious people. I thought I’d lost you when I couldn’t feel your chakra when I returned after Pain’s attack. You were gone and missing and I had to stay calm, had to fight, so I did. After you were there, as always, to carry me back. I was so happy. I knew everything would be fine because you were there, alive and I hadn’t lost you."

Naruto took Kakashi's right hand in his and turned it around to look at the inside of his wrist. He stroked a thumb over where the seal had once been.

"Then when you went on that suicide mission shortly after I was so angry. I had to reach you in time, had to get you back. I couldn’t… I wouldn’t lose you. I refused. I’d been through it already and it was the _worst_. People kept saying I should let you die for Konoha, but what’s Konoha without you? It made no sense. And you weren’t there to explain it to me, sensei. So I had to get you back. Because you make things make sense.”

Kakashi stood there, struck deaf to anything but Naruto's low murmur, blind to anything but his blue, blue eyes and mute because he didn't know what to do when Naruto looked at him like that.

"Maybe that's why I always relax around you, sensei," Naruto said with a laugh. "Remember the war when you told me off about it? But you were there so I knew we'd win. You're the best, after all. The strongest and the smartest and you've never let me down. I knew you'd come up with a plan."

He went quiet and took a step closer. Kakashi felt naked under that stare. As Naruto moved closer he felt the heat radiating through his standard-issue shirt and pants.

"I know I love you," Naruto said. "How could I not? But I have to figure out if I'm _in love_ with you too."

Kakashi tried to move away, he did, but his legs refused to listen. "You don't _have_ to do anything, Naruto.”  
  
“Well, I _want_ to,” the younger man replied and slid his hand down to hold Kakashi’s hand in his.  
  
“You won’t lose me, Naruto, you know that,” Kakashi said. “You don’t need to feel anything back. I shouldn't have told you. I, I’m sorry.”

Naruto shook his head. “No, you should have. I’m glad you did. I don’t feel like I have to love you back, that’s not what this is about, sensei. I know now that I can’t make myself feel something for a person just because they love me.”  
  
“But then why?”

“Because I feel good when I am with you,” Naruto said and traced his thumb over Kakashi’s knuckles, paying extra attention to the many scars. “ You’re… safety and home. And I like holding your hand. I feel nervous, but good nervous, y’know?”

Kakashi felt his heart beating furiously in his chest as if trying to leap across the small gap between them. It was a silly old thing, wasn’t it? As if he hadn’t given it to Naruto years ago. 

“So what now, Naruto?” Kakashi asked and took the final step closer. He put his free hand against Naruto’s neck, stroking the furiously beating pulse with his thumb. Their entwined hands got caught between their chests and he pressed Naruto’s hand to his heart.

“Well, sensei,” Naruto said and the look on his face was the one he had once he had thought of something brilliant mid-battle. “You should kiss me.”

Kakashi blinked. He saw how Naruto tilted his face up to bridge the slight gap between them, looking expectant and thought he must have heard wrong. “What?”  
  
“I think you should kiss me, Kakashi,” Naruto said, looking at Kakashi with half-lidded eyes and a slightly opened mouth, and hearing just his name in a husky murmur made Kakashi bite back a groan. “Just one kiss? Then I’ll know.”  
  
“You will, will you? With just a kiss?” He asked, and bit into his lips just to be sure. Nothing happened and Naruto still stood in front of him, shivering. It’d be so easy to lean forward and catch those lips with his, maybe bite them until they were slick and red. Instead, he ducked forward and smiled against Naruto’s cheek, rubbing his nose over the whisker marks and delighting in how the cheek grew warm and flushed under his touch. Enjoying the sweet scent of Naruto’s arousal.   
  
Naruto nodded and closed his eyes. Then a tentative hand slid up his neck and rested against his cheek. 

“I’m not gonna peek, I promise,” Naruto whispered and Kakashi’s heart ached as he tugged his mask down.

Instead of replying, he brushed his lips against Naruto’s, softly because a part of him didn’t believe it was real, but there was softness and heat against his lips. He breathed in the scent he’d know anywhere. The breath came out as a shuddering gasp between them. Then he pressed closer, felt Naruto’s lips give and yield and he _ached_. He slid his hand up, trailing a meandering path up Naruto’s neck, across his jaw, cheeks and corner of his mouth, before landing in silky smooth hair. Naruto groaned against his lips and moved closer, sliding a leg between his and Kakashi wanted to drag him closer, under his skin, through the space between his ribs and tuck him into the space in his heart Naruto had carved out, smile by smile.  
  
Instead, he pulled away with a last, lingering kiss and a regretful sigh. He took a step back and readjusted his mask as Naruto blinked open his eyes, dazed, with red cheeks and darkened eyes. 

“Kakashi?”  
  
Kakashi shuddered and leaned back. His name had never sounded so sweet.

“We said one kiss, Naruto,” he said and tried not to notice how Naruto’s eyes widened and grew heated from his voice alone. There were things left unresolved, and if he pulled Naruto closer now he wasn’t sure he’d ever let go. “You should take some time to think. And you need to talk to Hinata as well.”

Naruto frowned but nodded with a sigh. “You’re right, sensei.”

“I’m usually right,” he said, stepping away despite his instincts telling him to move closer, to grab onto that sun and refuse to let go. _Mine_ , something in him called, _she can’t have you_ , _please don’t let her._

“And so humble,” Naruto said and shook his head. “Well, I guess I knew that you’d be an annoying bastard even in this.”

As he walked past Kakashi on his way to the window, he darted in and pressed a kiss to a masked cheek. “See you tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei. That’s enough time, right?”

Kakashi caught a glimpse of blushing cheeks before Naruto was out of the room with a final wave. 

_____

His dreams were of Naruto that night. Flushed and golden in his bed. Over and under and surrounding him. Smelling of sweat and arousal. And of Kakashi.  
  
Tentative fingers explored his body and his name, husky and sweet, was whispered against his lips as soft lips brushed against his with each syllable.  
  
A hoarse laugh. Heat. Warmth. Naruto. Blue eyes. Burning into him.  
  
There was heat and stretching and feeling full to bursting. Naruto between his legs, thrusting deep at one moment and another, riding him, head thrown back.  
  
He hungered, in the space between his ribs, his hands, his skin. Wanted to be closer, needed him deeper.

He woke up frustrated.

The dreams weren’t new, not at all, but now they didn’t feel as far away. They were so much more alluring and tempting now that Naruto was almost close enough.

_____

The little button on the kettle flicked over and the light turned off. Kakashi took the boiling water and poured it into the teapot with one hand and started frying some bacon with the other.

He heard someone approach outside of the open window behind him and the wind blew the right way for him to catch one of his favourite scents, intermingling with miso, earth and flowers. Naruto must have tended his plants this morning.

He felt more than he heard Naruto land on the window sill.  
  
“Morning, Naruto,” he said, flipping the bacon over.

“Morning, sensei!”

Kakashi heard a soft thud behind him before arms circled around his waist and Naruto leaned against his back, nuzzling closer with a pleased hum. Kakashi stood still for a moment, but once he realised that Naruto wasn’t going to move anytime soon (judging by how much of Naruto’s weight was now bonelessly slumped against him) he covered Naruto’s hands with one of his. 

“Slept well, Naruto?”  
  
“Not at all, I was too worked up to sleep,” the younger man grumbled and hooked his chin over Kakashi’s shoulder to watch the cooking. “And worried about the talk with Hinata. Which went fine, before you ask. She was sad, but she understood that I didn’t feel the same. We’ll probably stay friends unless Kiba and Shino kill me in my sleep.”

Kakashi turned his head to catch a glimpse of half-lidded eyes, making sure to rub their cheeks together as he went. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”  
  
“I don’t know, Shino can be scary,” Naruto said and moved even closer. “You gotta protect me. They won’t go against their Hokage!”  
  
“Sure,” Kakashi said and held a piece of bacon over his shoulder for Naruto to nibble on. “I’ll keep you safe.”

Sharp teeth nipped at his fingers and a clever tongue snuck out to lick up the remaining fat. A kiss was pressed to his chin, neck and then shoulder in a lazy trail before he felt Naruto smile against his neck. “This is why I love you.”  
  
Kakashi took a deep breath, moved the pan off the heat and turned around. Blue eyes met his without any hesitation.

“You sure?”  
  
A nod. A smile. And hands pulling him close. “And I’m in love with you, Kakashi.” 

He gave in to the pull and found himself lifting Naruto and putting him on the counter. It made it so easy to step between orange-clad legs and press closer. “I thought you would give it some more time than that.”  
  
Naruto snorted. “Now you’re being silly, sensei. I told you I’d know after one kiss. But you wanted some time. And for me to talk to Hinata first, so I did. I agreed since it seemed like she should hear it from me rather than the rumours.”  
  
“The rumours?”

A hand slid into his hair, scratching gently and another one moved up to Kakashi’s cheek, asking for permission. “You know what Konoha’s like. I’m sure the whole village will know by sundown.”

“Maa, I guess you’re right,” he said and tilted his chin into the hand. The look of wonder on Naruto’s face was gratifying, and the hunger that showed up as his face was bared even more so. 

“Wow,” Naruto breathed as he traced Kakashi’s face with a reverent hand. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I wasn’t ready for this.”  
  
“See something you like?”  
  
Naruto nodded with a flush on his cheeks. “A lot. You’re like stupidly gorgeous. And I get to _see_ you.”

“Kissing would be nice too, you know.”  
  
Naruto blinked at that and dragged his eyes back to Kakashi’s. “Hmm?”

Kakashi smiled at the distracted look, only to blush when Naruto reached out to poke a dimple.

“Well, Naruto,” he said. “You should kiss me.”

“What?”  
  
“I think you should kiss me, Naruto,” Kakashi said and made sure to gaze at Naruto with half-lidded eyes and a slightly opened mouth.

Recognition at last. And Naruto rolled his eyes but obliged him. “Just one kiss?”

“No,” Kakashi replied and stepped closer, enjoying how strong legs wrapped around his waist to hold him fast. “I want many, many more.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I was, at first, not planning on involving the Hinata element in this story. But then thanks to discussions with everyone in comments under Let the right one in, this was on my mind and it snuck in. 
> 
> I ended up asking for advice on if I should keep it or not because it undoubtedly made the story a bit less streamlined compared to "Find ring, confess love, admit attraction, kiss, the end". Grace graciously helped out (pun intended, I have a shitty sense of humour) and for this I am thankful. Even if it meant that I needed to write more story and dialogue.
> 
> After chatting about it, I ended up keeping it in. Because hey, life's messy. Kakashi and Naruto are idiots. But they're lovable idiots. And, in this version of the story, they're noble idiots who trust each other and want to respect a decent person by not going behind her back.


End file.
